[whatwg] RE: Degrading of web applications

[Jim Ley]

On Tue, 14 Sep 2004 12:16:24 +0100, James Graham <jg307 at cam.ac.uk> wrote:
> On 11 Sep 2004, at 16:43, Jim Ley wrote:
> >
> >> On Fri, 10 Sep 2004, Jim Ley wrote:
> >> If application providers
> >> consider that compatibility with non-JS browsers (and browsers with JS
> >> disabled) is not critical, then that is an important datapoint.
> >
> > It is, unfortunately, it's also something that won't fly in the
> > application world of the EU, where anti-discrimination employment laws
> > will cripple any attempt to have this fly
> 
> What are the exact terms of the act? Does it specifically mention
> scripting?

The relevant one that is of concern mentions nothing about websites or
anything else, it's employment discrimination laws not the DDA etc. 
Here the problem is that employers cannot and indeed do not IME turn
away people because their intranet doesn't work with the access tools
they need - this isn't some universally accessible solution and
scripting is perfectly possible (generally the employees have the very
best Access Technology available)

I was mainly highlighting the point that the thing which started this
thread, whilst not in itself a web-application, would be very hard to
make accessible even with scripting enabled (indeed in the windowing
framework I just finished developing we just ducked the issue, this
was okay because it was a complement to a thick application (that did
everything using normal windows controls so was accessible to windows
users) and not a standalone web application.

Jim.